Passion & Purpose: Winter 2025-26
A $7.8 million Estate gift bolsters affiliate’s community grantmaking endowment
ob Alexander invested his life — and ultimately, his legacy — in the Branson area. Born and raised in Taney County, he served his neighbors as a pharmacist for more than 50 years.
When he died in 2025, his estate ensured that impact lives on through a $7.8 million gift to the Community Foundation of Taney County. The endowment will generate an estimated $312,000 annually — and continue growing in perpetuity — to support community grantmaking in Taney County.
“Bob lived simply and was concerned especially for others in Taney County who had no choice but to live simply, many rooted there for generations and still adjusting to the glitz, glitter and high life that has grown up around them since the 1960s,” says Shannon Cave, Alexander’s cousin.
Alexander’s roots in the Branson region were generations deep. After graduating from Branson High School and the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, and serving in the U.S. Army, he joined the family pharmacy — a hub for sweet treats where locals’ memories haven’t melted.
Bob Alexander served the Branson community as a pharmacist for more than 50 years. His estate gift will benefit Taney County in perpetuity.
“He was famous for the pharmacy for selling nickel ice cream cones,” says Mitch Holmes, a CF of TC board member, who knew Alexander for more than 35 years. “When I went to his funeral, and everybody was there who knew him, everybody would say, ‘Oh, yeah, we always went there for our nickel ice cream cones.”
Alexander was an avid outdoorsman, skillful marksman and respected gunsmith involved with the Branson Rifle Club. He lived in the same house nearly his entire life — one that later would become part of his estate and bring community benefit through its sale.
“He loved, hunted, fished and floated the White River valley before Table Rock Dam was built, and climbed into Marvel Cave before there were stairs or elevators or lights,” Cave says. “Working in the Alexander Drug store since childhood and practicing pharmacy there until it closed, he knew most of the families in the Branson area and served their prescriptions in a far different way than the big stores do it today.”
Alexander’s community work also included the Masons and Branson’s Board of Adjustment, where he served from 1988 to 2007. These missions continued despite a significant limit of his own mobility.
“Bob fell from a tree and was paralyzed from the waist down in 1975, moving on arm-crutches and leg braces and dealing with limits to mobility and related issues the rest of his life,” Cave says. “I never heard him complain about that, or to keep him from doing what and going where he wanted.”
As his obituary put it, “He will be remembered for his professionalism, friendship, service, dedication to helping others and the legacy he leaves with the Community Foundation of Taney County.”
—by Kaitlyn McConnell
